It is heretofore been known to provide a rear shield on a lawn mower which is mounted directly on the transverse rear axle structure or a drive shaft extending to the respective rear wheels. In some instances this has been a flexible sheet of material such as, for example, is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,386. This patent shows a flexible sheet of material carried on a transverse rod with the lower edge or end of the material engaging the ground. There have also been instances where the rear shield is made of a metal plate in which the lower end of the metal plate engages, in many instances, the ground. The purpose of such shield is to prevent the insertion of an operator's foot under the mower and into contact with the rotating blade of the mower.
One of the problems that exists with respect to having a stiff metal sheet serve as the rear guard is that the operator of the mower often finds the shield a source of annoyance when backing. The guard will be inclined rearwardly due to the previous forward movement of the mower. When backing, if the lower end of the shield contacts a high level of ground or a foreign object, it will prevent backing and the operator must force the mower to rock about the upper pivot edge of the shield. In many instances this has been sufficiently annoying that the operator eventually secures the shield in an upper position or, in some instances, even removes it.
With respect to the flexible sheet of material, it eliminates the annoyance of making it difficult to reverse direction of the mower. However, since the material is flexible it reduces the degree of safety for the operator since a foot or other part of the anatomy which might be inserted from the rear of the mower may cause sufficient distortion of the shield so as to minimize the effective safety characteristic of the shield. Also, injury sometimes occurs due to material being thrown rearwardly by the blade and the flexible shield will yield such that the heavier materials will move by the shield by distorting it momentarily.